Motorsport is trying to reach Net Zero. Could fuels like this, made from air and water, help accelerate the journey?

(CNN) — As the climate crisis worsens, Formula One is looking for ways to pollute less planet-heating carbon and become more sustainable.

Like many other sports, Formula One has committed to achieving net-zero by 2030, meaning that those behind it pledge to dramatically reduce its carbon pollution and remove from the atmosphere any that remains.

In a step toward that goal, F1 teams will be required to run on 100% sustainable fuels from 2026 onwards. F1 cars already use 10% ethanol biofuel.

As fans have been familiarizing themselves with terms such as “carbon neutral” over the past few years and getting to grips with what it means for the highly-polluting motorsport’s future, one type of fuel could have the potential to change the game entirely: synthetic fuel.

Synthetic fuels aim to be carbon neutral, and those used in racing are made by combining carbon and hydrogen — to make hydrocarbons — just like gasoline used in cars today. The difference is, instead of using oil, which pollutes and heats the planet, the carbon in synthetic fuels is sucked from the air with filters, while the hydrogen comes from water using the process of electrolysis, powered with renewable energy sources like wind and solar. One company using that process is Zero Petroleum.

Zero is producing fossil-free replicas of the base materials used in gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Vehicles can then run on these fuels without any modifications.

While Zero and synthetic fuels as a whole are stirring up a lot of excitement in motorsport, the reality is we’re not likely to see them in F1, NASCAR or IndyCar any time soon.

The product is incredibly pricey – CNN Sport was told at the company’s recent Fuel Reinvented event in Bicester, England, that it was around four times more expensive than petrol – which naturally hinders the ability to make it widely available for use in motorsport.

Electrolysis of water using renewable energy produces what is known as green hydrogen, but the process is expensive and requires huge amounts of renewable energy. According to BloombergNEF, the average production cost for green hydrogen in 2023 was $6.40 per kilogram. In comparison, gray hydrogen – which is made from fossil fuels – was $2.14 per kg.

Hydrogen Insight reported in 2023 that the first synthetic fuel made from green hydrogen and CO2 at German car manufacturer Porsche’s Haru Oni pilot project in Southern Chile was over 100 times more expensive than petrol.

Zero, however, believes that the price point will come down over the next few years as the company grows and ramps up its production levels. Bloomberg’s research suggests that the green hydrogen price could drop below its gray counterpart by the end of the current decade.

“These fuels will be produced in huge quantities eventually, in a few decades,” Zero founder Paddy Lowe told CNN at the event in July. “I believe all fuels will be made in this way, and we won’t be using fossil fuels anymore at all. So that’s a very, very exciting future.”

F1 pedigree

Lowe is a former motorsport engineer who boasts a wealth of title-winning experience in F1 between 1987 and 2019, serving as Chief Technical Officer at Williams, Technical Director with McLaren and Executive Director, Technical, at Mercedes.

He helped to develop seven Drivers’ World Championship-winning cars; Nigel Mansell, Nico Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen (twice) and Lewis Hamilton (three times) each claimed the sport’s ultimate prize with Lowe on the team. He also has five Constructors’ Championships to his name.

A self-professed “petrolhead,” the 62-year-old left the sport in 2019 to start Zero and told CNN about his excitement at being part of motorsport’s sustainability movement.

“We’re here today running lots of cars, making lots of noise, burning off fuel,” he said at the Fuel Reinvented event. “I love energy, and Formula One is a sport of high energy. The problem with energy these days is it needs to be made sustainable. That’s what we all know.

“I’ve just been very excited to become part of a new industry that will achieve that. And that’s a really nice counterbalance to my entire career in Formula One.”

Zero may be in its relatively early stages – the company has only been in existence for four years and Plant Zero.1 in Bicester only opened its doors in 2023, but F1 has helped to build its foundations. Alongside Lowe, there are multiple former F1 engineers on the team, while 1996 world champion Damon Hill is on board as an investor. Ahead of the 2024 F1 season, Zero became an official partner of the Kick Sauber team.

Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu put Zero’s product to the test at the Fuel Reinvented event, taking a 1967 Lamborghini Miura and a 2024 Huracán Sterrato around a track.

Diehard petrolheads and motorsport fans will be pleased to know that the fuel did nothing to affect the power or noise of the engines in contrast to quieter electric racing cars; the supercars blitzed around the track with the typical roar that fans have come to expect.

Zero continued its foray into motorsport in April, linking up with 2B Autosport to become the first synthetic fuel partner in rally car racing. It also has deals outside of sport, including a partnership with the British Royal Air Force that saw both parties awarded a Guinness World Record for the world’s first successful flight using only synthetic fuel.

Zero could perhaps seek to emulate P1 Fuels, a synthetic fuel firm that is already an established player in the industry. The German company’s Eco100Pro product can be legally sold at US and European fuel stations and already supplies fuel to the World Rally Championship and World Karting Championship.

Other racing competitions are also already entering this space. Porsche announced this year that the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup – a one-make stock car series – would run exclusively on synthetic fuels produced at the Haru Oni plant. However, the fuels are described as only “potentially near-carbon-neutral” by the company.

When the fuel regulations hit F1 in 2026, it will be working in collaboration with Aramco, a Saudi state-owned petroleum and natural gas giant and a global partner of F1, which will see sustainable fuels used in motorsport on the biggest scale so far.

Is F1 losing the race to Net Zero?

Lowe welcomes motorsport’s approach to sustainability and praised F1’s 2026 fuel regulations, calling the sport a “great platform for developing new technology, improving it and bringing it to general adoption.” But as the example-setting pinnacle of motorsport with significant influence over much of the racing world, how close is F1 to making its net zero target a reality?

In the future, F1 says it will use carbon neutral fuels like the ones Zero produces. Per the sport, they will be created from a “a combination of non-food bio sources, genuine waste sources, or carbon extracted from the air” and will be “drop-in” fuels that do not require the engine or fuel system to be adapted.

In 2023, cars in the junior Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships began using a 55% sustainable fuel mix.

There are perceived moral issues over F1’s partnership with Aramco. The company has been criticized in the past for “greenwashing,” given that the majority of its production is fossil fuels.

In addition, some experts suggest that electric power, a significantly cheaper alternative to synthetic fuels, would be a much more efficient way of decarbonizing the sport than synthetic fuel. But there are obstacles.

Former International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Jean Todt said in 2021 that it was “simply not possible” for the championship to go all-electric in the near future due to long race distances that electric power would not have the capacity for without recharging.

Furthermore, a different series, Formula E, currently holds the exclusive rights to a fully-electric single seater competition until 2039. And needless to say, F1 may face an open rebellion over the lack of engine sound from its fans, many of whom still long for the screech of the V8 units that were replaced in 2014 at the start of the turbo-hybrid era.

Though changing the way that the cars are powered is undoubtedly a positive step, the sport will need to make further drastic changes if it is to hit its target by 2030. Fuel makes up less than 1% of F1’s overall carbon footprint, while logistics – such as transporting cars, parts and equipment from country to country between races – account for 49%. With the F1 calendar expanding to a record 24 races this year, reducing emissions – and quickly – will be a huge challenge.

F1 is aiming to use sustainable aviation fuel and increase the use of sea freight to help bring emissions down. It also used a fleet of 18 new trucks fueled by a biofuel at nine European race weekends in 2023.

According to F1’s latest impact report, the sport still has a long way to go. Emissions in 2022 were down by 13% from 2018, but still well away from its target of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030, with the remainder being mitigated through carbon offsetting – taking separate measures, like planting trees, a somewhat controversial method of compensating for CO2 being added to the atmosphere.

F1 has certainly made some steps in the right direction but it remains to be seen whether it can achieve its goals before the checkered flag.

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